Hey guys this week's episode of basics
is not only sponsored by Blue Apron, it is itself a love letter to quick
weeknight meals. Blue Apron is a meal kit delivery service that's a great option
for anybody who's trying to cook more, cook healthier, or cook more deliciously.
The first hundred people to use the link in this video's description to sign up
for blue apron will get $50 off their first two weeks. We'll get back to that
later, for now let's get down to basics.... Okay, so as far as weeknights a great
place to start is the one pot meal I first posted this dish to Reddit like
four years ago and it's stuck by my side ever since. We're starting by peeling and
cubing 2 sweet potatoes pushing those aside so we can peel, core, and dice 2
granny smith apples. You want to use this or any other good baking Apple because
we're gonna be well, baking this Apple, so chop that up into similarly bite-sized
pieces and we're gonna mince up some fresh sage. So there we go, we got the
foundation now let's go build us a house. Into a lightly oiled ripping hot
stainless steel or cast iron skillet we are placing four chicken thighs skin
side down. We've already seasoned the skin side now
we're gonna season the meat with salt and freshly ground pepper and then we're
not touching these until they are deeply brown and pull away freely from the
bottom of the pot. Are they still stuck? Well ain't done yet! Pace around
nervously as we let the other side of the chicken get a little bit of color
but we're not trying to cook these through we're just trying to crisp up
the skin and we're trying to get some of this stuff on the bottom of the pot. Y'all know what this is: bond. Right now it's swimming in a whole bunch of extra
chicken fast so we're gonna drain off most of it, reserving about a tablespoon
into which we are depositing our sweet potato and apple. We're sauteing these
over medium heat for about five to seven minutes. Again, not to cook them through
just to give them some color and then we are deglazing with the good stuff: a
little bit of bourbon. If you know what you're doing and you've got a fire
extinguisher nearby you can go ahead and flambé the rest of the liquor off but
this is mostly just for showboating. Doesn't really do much for the flavor to
this we're going to add a little whisper of chicken stock just enough so that you
can see it pooling underneath the potatoes and apples, we're not trying to
braise this thing we're just trying to eventually create a sauce. Add the minced fresh sage and toss around let everybody get to know each other and then we're
bringing the chicken back to the party. Making sure that skin is not submerged
in the liquid and then this guy's going in a preheated 375 degree fahrenheit
oven while we toast up some pecans. Then once the thickest part of the
chicken thighs have reached 175 degrees Fahrenheit these guys are ready for
extradition I'm gonna give this a little squeeze of lemon but I hope you can see
how you can change this up to make it your own. You could swap the sweet
potatoes and apples for root vegetables you could change out bourbon for white
wine, or garnish with hazelnuts or almonds instead of
pecans, add onions or shallots in the earlier stages instead of garnishing
with chives. The basic concept here is did part cook your chicken by getting it
nice and crisp and sautéing and deglazing whatever starches fruits or
vegetables you have underneath in that sense it really all comes down to timing
and an excellent exercise in timing is sheet pan dinners. In this case we're
gonna do a starch, a vegetable, and a protein all on the same sheet pan in the
same oven. For starch I'm going with halved baby Yukon Golds that I'm coating an
olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper tossing to combine and then dumping onto
a preheated sheet pan that I've had waiting in a 400 degree fahrenheit oven
for about 20 minutes placing them cut side down this is gonna
help them pick up a little bit of extra color and they're going in the oven
first as they take the longest to cook about 40 minutes all told. That gives us
25 minutes to prep our vegetables in this case: asparagus. I'm using the old
bend to snap method which after a Google search I discovered is a myth so just
cut these... tossing with olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Then
we're whipping up a quick sauce for our protein in this case: salmon. So I'm gonna
go with some crushed garlic, the juice of one lemon; which you might notice I
pressed and rolled there.. That actually helps the juice come out more easily when squeezed, a nice little teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a good glug of olive oil,
some kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. There are so many different
directions that you could take this little vinaigrette but this one responds
particularly well to the heat of the oven. Next up, we're contending with our
salmon fillets which I'm just gonna make sure are free of bones... Fish mongers
don't always get all the bones so always give your fillets a little squeeze
before generously coating in your vinaigrette and now we're scooting the
potatoes off of the side which you can see if picked up some lovely brown color
and since the salmon and asparagus have roughly the same cook time about- 15
minutes they're getting arranged side by side on the sheet pan and back into the
oven they go until the salmon registers 125 degrees Fahrenheit at its thickest
point. Now if any elements of the sheet pan dinner is undercooked
just remove the finished elements put them under foil keep them warm until
everybody is ready to go. Garnish a little bit of parsley like I did if you
want; and you've got yourself one super easy super quick super delicious
weeknight dinner. Now there is a whole other strata of
so the easy weeknight dinners that we haven't yet discussed and that is: pasta.
So we're gonna try out blue aprons creamy pesto cavatelli and this is an
excellent exercise in 'mise en place,' making sure that we have everything in its
place. Let me just read the directions here... All
right, so we're starting by taking the zucchini cutting it into quarters
lengthwise, and then slicing into manageable mouth sized pieces.
Likewise with a carton of cocktail tomatoes we're cutting these into quarters, but it's a sliding scale based on what's a reasonable size for your mouth,
something that we're chopping down to sub mouth sized pieces is garlic. Three
cloves worth, finely chopped and now we're ready to move over to the stove.
Just got to get everything off our knife... Here there we go, we've got a nonstick
skillet heating over medium-high heat into it goes a splash of olive oil and
we're starting with our zucchini. Tossing it just a coat and then letting it sit
so it gets some nice brown flavorful facets while we negotiate our pasta.
Boiling for I think it said seven minutes we got some color going on the
zucchini so we're getting that a little toss, and firing the flames and then I'm
deviating from protocol here and adding the tomatoes because I want them to get
a little bit cooked. I personally like not totally raw tomatoes in my pasta.
Then, we're adding the garlic and some red pepper flake if desired- if you want
a little bit of heat- tossing that until fragrant and then draining our pasta
reserving one-half cup of pasta water if you haven't learned by now pasta water
is the stuff from which dreams are made. We're adding both the pasta and the
pasta water to the skillet adding the little included pat of creme fraiche and
stirring rounds of those flavors so they can get to know each other, and that pasta can
soak up all that delicious flavorful liquid. Now just before killing the heat
we're going to add about a cup of baby spinach. We want this to just wilt from
the heat of the pan so give it a little toss kill the heat, and then we're adding
the pesto. We want to avoid actively heating pesto as that dulls the flavor
of the basil. So we're just starting that making sure everything is incorporated
and most importantly tasting for seasoning. We are then seasoning to taste, tossing to combine, and plating up for dinner. As you can see blue apron once
again saves the day with quick beautiful meals featuring instructions you can
follow and ingredients you can pronounce.. and again the first hundred people to
sign up using the link in this video's description will get $50 off their first
two weeks. I hope you guys try making these meals for yourselves put your own
spin on it and see how lovely and fresh a meal you can make fast
than it takes to order a pizza.
Honestly, i feel like Babish being sponsored by Blue Apron is almost an oxymoron.
Is no one going to mention the INSANE amount of packaging in these meal kits? I tried one for free once.. individually bagged carrots, in plastic... 2 recipes called for tomatoes but was there one plastic shell to divide? No, 1 for each recipe. Same with spices. If 2 call for oregano you get 2 of those shitty non-recyclable baggies for each recipe.
I get that individually packaged meals could cut down on food waste but cutting back on food waste just to contribute more to landfills seems a bit moot.
I live in an area where salmon would be prohibitively expensive for me to use. Is there a different protein I could use?
A similar recipe to these which is one the staples of Dutch cuisine is stamppot (mashpot) which is easy to make. Traditional Dutch meals are potatoes + vegetables + meat, stamppot is just that but the vegetables and potatoes are mashed together. The most popular one is hutspot and it's really easy to make!
I always prepare it is as follows:
Ingredients
1 kg (2.2 lbs) potatoes (Yukon Gold are advised for Americans in other recipes)
1 kg (2.2 lbs) orange carrots
2 medium sized onions
50 ml (1.7 oz) milk
150 grams (0.3 lbs) uncured pork belly
25 grams (0.05 lbs) butter
Salt
Pepper
Optional
Rookworst, kielbasa, or any type of spiced sausage
Mustard
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
Recipe
Peel and dice the potatoes and carrots and cut the onions in bite-sized pieces. Meanwhile start boiling some water, use a big pot which can hold all the potatoes, onions, carrots, and cover them with water.
Boil the potatoes for thirty minutes, after fifteen minutes add the carrots and onions.
In the mean time, slice the pork belly in 1 inch by 1/4 inch pieces.
Add the butter to a skillet, melt it, and then add the sliced pork belly and bake until they start to brown.
Remove the water from the pot, and mash everything together.
Add the baked pork belly (without the fat) and milk and mix it in. You can also put in salt and pepper to taste and optionally the nutmeg.
If you like you can also serve the recipe with sausages, gravy, and mustard. Sausages should be cooked or baked according to instructions. The leftover pork belly fat can serve as gravy but you can also add gravy powder/mix to it or make your own from scratch. Mustard is usually served on the side, Dutch mustard tends to be coarsely grounded but any will do.
I really wish that the sponsorships would stay as ads at the start or end, rather than spending the whole video feeling like I'm watching an advert,
Bend and snap is a myth? Are you crazy!? That's how you get a man!
Loved this one! Speaking as a student, these are absolute godsend recipes, and I love how customisable you made them. I wonder if there could be a basics on slow cooker meals though? Can't really livestream that :( but would be very nice info to have regardless!
Is this video worth the watch if you don't have Blue Apron in your country?
What's the best substitution for the Bourbon in the first recipe, or the alcohol in pan sauces in general? Chicken Stock or just plain water?